John Rigby’s “Falling Night” is for me the picture of the show, a trailing mob of cattle going towater at sunset. It is a little vague and abstract in treatment generally but the atmosphere andsky are treated in high tones done in a series of small rectangles which gives the whole surface avery lively appearance; an enchanting picture.

ART NOTESBernard SmithThe Age, Melbourne, 9 September 1964

His art is for the most part joyous and frank, figurative painting full of air, light and colour.It reminds one of Philips Fox, though the idiom is contemporary.

NEW ART SHOWSJames GleesonThe Sun, Sydney, 7 September 1966

John Rigby’s paintings at the Macquarie Galleries could hardly be more saturated with colour,yet there is enough discipline in their ordering to satisfy the eye without overloading it.Whatever the subjects of his paintings might be,his real purpose as an artist is the worship of colour.

It would be hard to find a more vibrant painter than Queensland’s John Rigby. Seeing his workleaves you with a happy feeling – landscapes alive with sparkling light and vivid colours andpictures of women in decorative settings that are equally as colourful.

Master Queensland painter John Rigby,to many this state’s most senior and most celebrated artist . . .Rigby has always, better than any other artist, living or dead, encapsulated the“Queenslandness,” the tropicality and the different pacedness of this much blessed state.Rigby is essentially a colourist, one of the best. Come to think of it, given Australia’s lifestyle,climate and light, we have remarkably few genuine colourists.

Master Queensland painter John Rigby, whose lush pictures have delighted Australians for half a century, died last week just short of his 90th birthday. Few artists manage to capture the tropical grandeur and “Queenslandness” of this great state. Rigby did. As well as landscapes drenched with colour, Rigby created lively portraits of Queenslanders as diverse as actress Babette Stephens, likeable crook Russ Hinze and basketballer “Leapin” Leroy Loggins…

ENDURING IMPRESSION ON ARTGreg de SilvaThe Courier-Mail, 14 November 2012

Queensland artist John Rigby was, more than any other post-war artist, the greatest influence on generations of Brisbane artists and students…

John Rigby’s paintings were bold, colourful impressions full of light and life as seen through the eyes of a sensitive artist. He regarded himself as a mere speck of sand on a very large beach in the art world but the art world would not have been as rich if that speck of sand had not existed…